Washington, DC—Today, Congressman Bill Foster (IL-11) joined U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Congressman Dan Lipinski and other Members of Congress in announcing a new collaboration between the Department of Energy, Argonne, Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. This collaboration will allow each lab to develop supercomputers that are five to seven times faster than the fastest systems in the U.S. today.

“This is not just an important investment for Argonne and for our community, but this is an important investment in American innovation and for our economy and our national security. With this collaboration, Argonne will be equipped to build the next generation of supercomputers that are necessary for solving many of our industrial, scientific, and national security challenges,” said Foster.

“This investment gives the United States a vital competitive advantage. Study after study has shown that there are few investments our government can make that provide as high a return as scientific research and development. It is critical that we make investments like this to protect our role as world leaders in innovation.”

Foster is a scientist and businessman who worked at Fermi National Laboratory for over 20 years. Foster’s scientific career was as a high-energy physicist and particle accelerator designer at Fermi Lab. Foster was a member of the team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter. He also led the teams that designed and built several scientific facilities and detectors still in use today, including the Recycler Ring, the latest of Fermi Lab's giant particle accelerators. With the retirement of Congressman Rush Holt at the end of this term, Foster will be the only physicist in Congress.